Effect of calf sex on some productive, reproductive and health traits in Holstein cows

  • Arash Chegini University of Guilan, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, Dept. Animal Science. P.O. Box: 41635-1314, Rasht
  • Navid Ghavi Hossein-Zadeh University of Guilan, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, Dept. Animal Science. P.O. Box: 41635-1314, Rasht
  • Hossein Hosseini-Moghadam University of Guilan, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, Dept. Animal Science. P.O. Box: 41635-1314, Rasht
Keywords: persistency, lactation length, calving interval, productive life

Abstract

Records of Holstein cows from March 1992 to April 2008 from 194 large herds and comprising from 402,716 records for productive traits to 178,344 records of somatic cell count were used to study the effect of calf sex in different parities and calving season on the subsequent productive, reproductive and health traits in Holstein cows. T-test procedure of SAS software was used to investigate the effect of calf sex and season of calving on aforementioned traits. Cows with female calves had higher milk and fat yield, persistency of milk and fat yield and longer lactation length, while cows that gave birth to male calves had shorter calving interval and longer productive life. Also, cows with female calves had higher milk yield per day of lactation in the first two parities, but there was no difference in milk yield per day of lactation for parities ≥ 3. There was no relationship among mean somatic cell count and sex of born calf. Fall calves had the highest adjusted milk yield and milk yield per day of lactation, however, winter calves had the longest lactation lengthand productive life and the highest somatic cell count. Results from this study demonstrate that it seems necessary to consider the effect of calf sex on aforementioned traits when making decision to use sexed semen or conventional semen.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Afzal M, Anwar M, Mirza MA, 2007. Some factors affecting milk yield and lactation length in Nili Ravi buffaloes. Pakistan Vet J 27(3): 113-117.

Alphonsus C, Essien IC, Akpa GN, Barje PP, 2011. Factors influencing milk yield characteristics in Bunaji and Friesian ×Bunaji cows in northern Nigeria. Anim Prod 13(3): 143-149.

Atashi H, Zamiri MJ, Sayyadnejad MB, 2012. Effect of twinning and stillbirth on the shape of lactation curve in Holstein dairy cows of Iran. Arch Tierz 55(3): 226-233.

Bareille N, Beaudeau F, Billon S, Robert A, Faverdin P, 2003. Effects of health disorders on feed intake and milk production in dairy cows. Livest Prod Sci 83(1): 53-62. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0301-6226(03)00040-X

Berry DP, Lee JM, Macdonald KA, Roche JR, 2007. Body condition score and body weight effects on dystocia and stillbirths and consequent effects on postcalving performance. J Dairy Sci 90: 4201-4211. http://dx.doi.org/10.3168/jds.2007-0023

Chaudhry MA, 1992. Factors affecting the lactation length and milk yield in Nili-Ravi buffaloes. Asian-Australas J AnimSci 5: 375-382. http://dx.doi.org/10.5713/ajas.1992.375

Chegini A, 2010. Genetic and environmental relationship among milk yield, persistency of milk yield, somatic cell count and calving interval of Holstein cows in Iran. Master's thesis. University of Guilan, Iran.

Colburn DJ, Deutscher GH, Nielsen MK, Adams DC, 1997. Effects of sire, dam traits, calf traits, and environment on dystocia and subsequent reproduction of two-year-old heifers. J Anim Sci 75: 1452-1460.

Eaglen SAE, Coffey MP, Woolliams JA, Mrode R, Wall E, 2011. Phenotypic effects of calving ease on the subsequent fertility and milk production of dam and calf in UK Holstein-Friesian heifers. J Dairy Sci 94: 5413-5423. http://dx.doi.org/10.3168/jds.2010-4040

Fabrice NQ, Wilcox CJ, Simerl NA, Sharma AK, Thatcher WW, 1995. Effects of fetal sex and sire and other factors on periparturient and postpartum performance of dairy cattle. Braz J Genet 18(4): 541-545.

Gaafar HMA, Shamiah ShM, Abu El-Hamd MA, Shitta AA, Tag El-Din MA, 2011. Dystocia in Friesian cows and its effects on postpartum reproductive performance and milk production. Trop Anim Heal Prod 43(1): 229-234. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11250-010-9682-3

Ghavi Hossein-Zadeh N, 2013. Effects of main reproductive and health problems on the performance of dairy cows: a review. Span J Agric Res 11(3): 718-735. http://dx.doi.org/10.5424/sjar/2013113-4140

Ghavi Hossein-Zadeh N, Nejati-Javaremi A, Miraei-Ashtiani SR, Kohram H, 2008. An observational analysis of twin births, calf stillbirth, calf sex ratio, and abortion in Iranian Holsteins. J Dairy Sci 91: 4198-4205. http://dx.doi.org/10.3168/jds.2008-1079

Ghavi Hossein-Zadeh N, Nejati-Javaremi A, Miraei-Ashtiani SR, Kohram H, 2010. Bioeconomic evaluation of the use of sexed semen at different conception rates and herd sizes in Holstein populations. Anim Reprod Sci 121: 17-23. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.anireprosci.2010.05.012

Haile-Mariam M, Bowman PJ, Goddard ME, 2003.Genetic and environmental relationship among calving interval, survival, persistency of milk yield and somatic cell count in dairy cattle. Livest Prod Sci 80: 189-200. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0301-6226(02)00188-4

Hinde K, Carpenter AJ, Clay JS, Bradford BJ, 2014.Holsteins favor heifers, not bulls: biased milk production programmed during pregnancy as a function of fetal sex. Plos One 9(2): e86169. http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0086169

Khalajzadeh S, Nejati-Javaremi A, Mehrbani Yeganeh H, 2012. Effect of widespread and limited use of sexed semen on genetic progress and reproductive performance of dairy cows. Anim 6: 1398-1406. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S1751731112000651

Lateef M, Gondal KZ, Younas M, Sarwar M, Mustafa MI, Bashir MK, 2008. Milk production potential of pure bred Holstein Friesian and Jersey cows in subtropical environment of Pakistan. Pakistan Vet J 28(1): 9-12.

Olde Riekerink RGM, Barkema HW, Stryhn H, 2007. The effect of season on somatic cell count and the incidence of clinical mastitis. J Dairy Sci 90: 1704-1715. http://dx.doi.org/10.3168/jds.2006-567

SAS, 2002. SAS User's guide v. 9.1: Statistics. SAS Inst. Inc., Cary, NC, USA.

Schutz MM, Hansen LB, Steuernagel GR, 1990. Variation of milk, fat, protein, and somatic cells for dairy cattle. J Dairy Sci 73: 484-493. http://dx.doi.org/10.3168/jds.S0022-0302(90)78696-1

Syrstad O, 1965. Studies on herd records. II. Effect of age and season of calving. Acta Agric Scand 15: 31. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00015126509433110

Tadesse M, Dessie T, 2003. Milk production performance of Zebu, Holstein Friesian and their crosses in Ethiopia. Livest Res Rural Dev 15 (3). Available in http://www.lrrd.org/lrrd15/3/Tade153.htm.

Yudin NS, Aitnazarov RB, Voevoda MI, Gerlinskaya LA, Moshkin MP, 2013.Association of polymorphism harbored by tumor necrosis factor alpha gene and sex of calf with lactation performance in cattle. Asian-Australas J Anim Sci 26: 1379-1387 http://dx.doi.org/10.5713/ajas.2013.13114

Published
2015-05-29
How to Cite
Chegini, A., Ghavi Hossein-Zadeh, N., & Hosseini-Moghadam, H. (2015). Effect of calf sex on some productive, reproductive and health traits in Holstein cows. Spanish Journal of Agricultural Research, 13(2), e0605. https://doi.org/10.5424/sjar/2015132-6320
Section
Animal production